The Informal Caregiver Burden Assessment Questionnaire: validation for Brazil

Objectives: to analyze the dimensionality, convergent construct validity and internal consistency of the Informal Caregiver Burden Assessment Questionnaire (QASCI) after its semantic adaptation to Brazil. Method: this methodological study was developed with 132 informal caregivers of elders who are dependent of help for basic or instrumental activities of daily living, in a capital city in Northeast Brazil. Quality of life measures related to health, anxiety and depression were used in the analysis of the convergent construct validity of the QASCI. Results: the results of the instrument construct validation evidenced statistically significant correlations with the three measures. The confirmatory factor analysis evidenced good adjustment of the theoretical model of seven factors (domains) of the version used in the group studied. Cronbach's alpha for the scale total was 0.92. Conclusion: the Brazilian version of the QASCI was considered to be valid and reliable for assessing the burden of informal elder caregivers.